Iraq deputy president urges US troops to quit Najaf
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-08-11 16:24

Iraq's interim deputy president has urged U.S. troops to leave the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf to end a week of fierce fighting, appearing to open a split within the government over how to end the crisis.

In fresh violence elsewhere, at least six Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded when a bomb exploded in a market north of Baghdad on Wednesday, hospital sources said. They said the explosion occurred in Khan Bani Saad village, around 25 miles north of the capital. There were no further details.

Fighting between U.S. forces and militiamen loyal to radical Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf has killed and wounded hundreds in the toughest challenge yet for the six-week-old administration of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

An Iraqi Shi'ite follower of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, carries weapons as she chants anti-U.S. slogans in the streets of eastern Baghdad's suburb of al-Sadr city August 10, 2004. [Reuters]

"I call for multinational forces to leave Najaf and for only Iraqi forces to remain there," Ibrahim Jaafari said in remarks broadcast on Al Jazeera television on Wednesday.

"Iraqi forces can administer Najaf to end this phenomenon of violence in this city that is holy to all Muslims."

The Shi'ite unrest has disrupted Iraq's vital oil exports and triggered a spike in world prices.

Iraq's exports were running at a reduced rate on Wednesday as engineers repaired a sabotaged pipeline feeding the country's southern terminals, oil officials and a shipping agent said.

Oil prices hovered just below record highs. U.S. light crude was up eight cents to $44.60 a barrel, below Tuesday's $45.04.

Spokesmen for the prime minister, president and also the U.S. military appeared surprised by Jaafari's comments, but they had no immediate reaction.

Jaafari is a respected politician who heads the Shi'ite Muslim Dawa Party, one of the largest Muslim groups in the country.

He told Jazeera the interim government should keep "political bridges open" with Sadr and his loyalists. But, he said, the administration should resort to "extraordinary" means if Sadr rejected the overtures and continued fighting.

Najaf was relatively quiet on Wednesday morning after a night of sporadic clashes around the city's ancient cemetery and Imam Ali Shrine, although U.S. warplanes patrolled the skies.
The Najaf fighting is part of a radical Shi'ite uprising in several cities across central and southern Iraq. It is the second rebellion from Sadr's Mehdi Army in four months.

In the past 24 hours, at least 30 people were killed and 219 wounded in five Iraqi cities including Baghdad, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday. The figure did not include Najaf or casualties among foreign forces.

U.S. forces say they have killed 360 Sadr loyalists so far in Najaf. Sadr's spokesmen say far fewer have died.

WHAT ROLE FOR SADR?

U.S. forces have been pounding Sadr's Mehdi militiamen with warplanes and helicopters for days. The Iraqi fighters have taken sanctuary in the vast cemetery near the Imam Ali Shrine, one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest sites.

Marines have cordoned off the area but have not made a full assault, a move that would enrage Iraq's majority Shi'ites.

The rebels have ignored an order from Allawi to leave Najaf, home to 600,000 people some 100 miles south of Baghdad. Sadr says he will keep resisting and never leave his hometown.

The latest fighting raises questions about what role Sadr wants to play in postwar Iraq, especially ahead of landmark elections scheduled for January. Allawi's attempts to bring Sadr into the political fold appear to have failed, for now.

Aged about 30 and a prominent figure in a revered clerical dynasty, he does not speak for all Iraq's Shi'ites but his tough anti-U.S. rhetoric has won him many admirers and swelled the ranks of his Mehdi militia.

U.S. military officials have said 2,000 marines were involved in Najaf, along with army units and Iraqi security forces. No other foreign troops are believed to be engaged.

On Tuesday, the U.S. military used loudspeakers to urge the fighters to surrender and civilians to leave the battle zone.

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